The Latino behind New York Film Festival bids farewell after 25 Years, goes out with a bang

Posted in Movies by Angie

The 50th annual New York Film Festival got underway on Sept. 28, marking the golden anniversary of the highly influential series, and the last hurrah for Film Society of Lincoln Center‘s program director Richard Peña, who is retiring after 25 years at the helm.

Peña, a die-hard New Yorker of Spanish and Puerto Rican descent who experienced his first NYFF at age 12, has been instrumental in furthering – and in some cases, launching — the careers of many great international filmmakers in the US, chief among them, Pedro Almodóvar.

For his last NYFF, Peña is going out with a bang: 50 films on the Main Slate lineup, a good mix of choice arthouse offerings, foreign language prize winners from Cannes and Berlin, and world premieres of big Hollywood movies, like Ang Lee’s big-screen adaptation of the best-seller Life of Pi, in addition to special retrospectives, sidebars and two special series: Cineastes/Cinema of Our Time and Men of Cinema: Pierre Riessent and the Cinema Mac Mahon. Two galas will honor Nicole Kidman and Peña on Oct. 3 and 10, respectively.

Even though he will continue his academic career at Columbia University, where he’s taught Film Studies since 2003 (he’s been teaching there since 1989, in one capacity or another), Peña is actually looking forward to relaxing and spending more time with his wife, Karen and their three children (24-year-old son Ari, and daughters Maya, 22, and Lita, 15). “There’s a general desire to slow down a bit,” the 59-year-old cinephile tells me. “It’s been a pretty adventurous 25 years.”

On the first day of the festival, Peña took time out to give me a call and talk about his tenure, where he sees filmmaking today, as well as what he considers to be great, classic Latin American cinema. Anyone who hasn’t seen his Top 5 Latin American Cinema Classics can easily do so on Netflix (I asked him to pick ‘accessible’ movies).

During our talk, I felt a little bit like a student in one of Peña’s classes at Columbia. I actually know a bunch of people who have had him as a professor and they have always raved about him.

Now I get why.

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12Sep2012

Eva Mendes: My style icon is my Abuelita

Posted in Beauty, Fashion by Angie

(L-R): Eva Mendes and her abuelita, Amada

My girl Eva Mendes (aka La Dolce Evita, as I like to call her) walked the red carpet at the premiere of her new film The Place Beyond the Pines a few days ago at the Toronto International Film Festival rocking this gorgeous silk Prada turban. Minutes later, blogs A-Z started offering up how-to-wear-a-head-wrap tutorials left and right.

I was curious what inspired her to go with this look. While turbans have popped up on the runways in recent years, Eva told me she was inspired by her abuelita Amada. Then she texted me this pic of them side-by-side. I don’t know if you can tell, but they’re wearing the same earrings. Now I see where she gets her looks!

As for me, I’m still trying to master the head wrap thing without looking crazy…

8Jun2012

The subtle genius of Aubrey Plaza

Posted in Celebrity Interviews, Movies by Angie

In comedy, as in any other genre, game recognizes game. So Aubrey Plaza, otherwise known as April, Amy Poehler’s snarky college intern on NBC’s mockumentary-style show Parks and Recreation, is the kind of funny that my favorite comedians — people like Conan or Chelsea — give props to.

It’s called subtlety. And it’s not exactly something Latinos are known to do on the big or small screen. Blame George Lopez– anyone who relies on muecas to elicit chuckles is going to run out of jokes eventually.

It’s like Marlon Brando once said: “We only have so many faces in our pockets.”

But as Darius, Plaza’s first major film role in this summer’s Safety Not Guaranteed, the 27-year-old, half-Puerto Rican, half-Irish actress isn’t so much funny as she is a disaffected, deeply insecure, socially awkward live-at-home college grad who has never fully dealt with the one big tragedy in her life: the death of her mother.

She’s not exactly someone you love at first sight, but there’s a transformation that happens here, and eventually, Darius becomes endearing, relatable, and most important, memorable.

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28Mar2012

Exclusive: on the set of Pitbull’s ‘Men in Black 3’ video

Posted in Celebrity Interviews, Movies, Music, Videos by Angie

Come with me as I take you behind the scenes of Pitbull’s hot new video for “Back in Time,” the theme song for the upcoming blockbuster Men in Black III, in theaters May 25, exclusively for Fusion (ABC/Univision).

27Jun2011

Cameron Diaz’s hot bod secret: ‘I eat every three hours’

Posted in Beauty, Celebrity Interviews, Food & Drink, Movies by Angie

Cameron Diaz has been looking amazing lately, so when we caught up with the Cuban actress in Miami we had to ask, how does she do it?

Your car wash scene in Bad Teacher obliterates every other car wash scene in cinematic history and we don’t blame you for flaunting your hot bod.

I didn’t even have time to work out [during the making of this film], I literally was working out 10 minutes a day in my trailer, doing what I call my horizontal workouts, which are not what you think! [Laughs]

Those sound like fun!

Yeah, but in my trailer with my gay trainer it was not like that [Laughs]. I did 10 minutes every day because I didn’t have time for longer workouts. I shot Knight and Day for six months before I started this movie and I only had two weeks off. I was tired. I was like, ‘I should’ve taken a nap before I did this movie.’ Luckily, my character gets to nap a lot. [Laughs] I’m burning so many calories when I’m working like this, so I would go to my trailer during lunch, I would eat, I would do my 10-minute workout on the floor laying down—just whatever exercise the trainer would give me— and then I would eat the last bit of my food and go back to work.

What are your views on nutrition?

People think that eating less is better but it’s actually the other way around. It’s more food, smaller portions throughout the day of the right food. I have to eat every three hours or else I’m no good to anybody. You keep your metabolism burning and that’s how you give the fuel to your body to do what you have to do.

What are some of your favorite healthy foods?

I do proteins, and the right carbs like brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa, and sweet potato. I stay away from the white stuff as much as possible. I don’t deny myself, though. Once a week, I’ll have pasta. I do it not because of the aesthetics but because of the nutrition. Whole grains are just better than those that have been refined, even though they taste really good. But just like anything in life, you have to work hard for it. I can’t look the way that I look by not working hard. There’s no way. The reward of things only comes when you work hard for them.

My mom always said, “Nothing’s for free. You always have to pay for it somewhere.” And I would rather pay for it with hard work than have to pay for it with something else down the line.

You seem to just live a healthy life all around.

For me, it’s about being fit and strong. My body is at its best when I’m my strongest. So when you’re skinny and you’re not eating and you’re not working out and you starve yourself, you’re useless. For me, it’s about being capable and being consistent with my fitness. I wanna be able to go surfing whenever I want, or hiking, or play golf— I wanna do all the things that I wanna be doing in my life with the people that I love, so I have to be physically capable.

That’s my purpose of going into the gym three to four times a week. And when I don’t do that, my brain doesn’t work, it’s hard for me to keep my head together and I’m not happy. I’m happiest when I’m strong, fit, clear-minded, and I can do all the things I know I’m capable of. Even though I’m a skinny little girl, I’m strong and I love it!

This post was originally published on Latina.com.